Author's Notes

Would you believe it? This is the last chapter! Seems like forever since I started this story… *checks* Oh, wait, it HAS been forever.

I'm sorry for the delays between updates. This hasn't been a good year for me at all, and I guess it affected my writing more than I thought it would.

And then, just to delay this chapter a bit more, my brand new Mimoco Storm Shadow drive, which should have been my pride and joy, crapped out and erased all my files – including this chapter. I lost about half of it (what was new since the last backup) and had to rewrite. I requested a replacement or a refund, but no answer from the company so far. So… as cool as they look, I would advise against purchasing Mimoco drives.

But anyway… on to the end!

Thank you for reading this far, and please review; feedback is priceless.

Chapter 20: Valleytown Showdown, part III

- Earlier –

Firefly had not become successful in his line of work by taking unnecessary risks. Truth be told, he only took chances when the payoff was worth it, be it in money or sheer entertainment. Playing with explosives was a good example; it was technically dangerous and from a strictly monetary perspective, not always the most reasonable way to get a job done. However, blowing things up was way too much fun to refrain from it just because it was risky.

Even when he did choose to tempt fate, the mercenary always very carefully stacked the odds in his favour as much as possible and one of the many ways he did that was by acquiring all the information he could; knowledge was power, and if you knew what you were doing, it was power that came at a very good price.

For instance, bugging the house Mindbender had selected to use as his temporary lab had cost next to nothing, and it had been more than worth it. For starters, it had been very amusing to find out that the Cobra scientist was assuming the planned ambush would allow him to escape; in reality, Firefly's men did not stand a chance against the ninjas, ninjas in training and elite soldiers, and the only point of the ambush was to keep the Joes busy long enough to allow Firefly to skip town untroubled.

But then, Storm Shadow had destroyed Mindbender's blood sample. Firefly, from his hiding point in the shadow of a house half a block back from the Joes' position, grinned at the memory. Mindbender had already paid a lot of money for a sample of Hattori's DNA, and the mercenary knew his client would pay more again to get one back.

It hadn't taken Firefly long to figure out a plan. After all, there were things more important to the Young Master than a few drops of his blood; all he had to do was to take one of those things and then make a trade with the ninja.

He waited to make his move until the ambush was in full swing. Some of his men were down already, including local bad boy Winslow, but there were more than enough left yet to give him the time he needed. He chose the one of his two potential targets that was furthest from the Arashikage masters and shot a tranquilizer dart at the young man. A quick bit of manoeuvring later, he was dragging Kamakura's unconscious form away from the battle, unseen and thanks to Storm Shadow's ear injury, unheard.

Tommy didn't need to alert the others; Kamakura's absence was quickly noticed by just about everyone and before Beach Head could even give new orders to deal with the situation, a familiar voice called out from a nearby rooftop.

"Looking for this, Joes?" Firefly held Kamakura in front of him, showing him off and using him as a shield. The ninja apprentice was unconscious, solidly tied up and covered in what appeared to be explosives. "He's a bit tied up at the moment," Firefly continued genially, "but I could be talked into trading him back..."

Snake Eyes snarled under his mask. It just figured, didn't it? Why was it that things just never stuck to going well for more than a few minutes? They were free, the apprentices were getting along, they had just effectively dismantled Firefly's gang… of COURSE something would go terribly wrong. Why had he not seen this coming?

Beach Head narrowed his eyes. Joes may not leave Joes behind, but they also did not usually negotiate with the likes of Firefly. He clenched his jaw and reached for his gun; he'd just have to hope the mercenary didn't have time to set off the explosives.

Firefly disappeared behind Kamakura. "You're kidding, right?" he asked with a chuckle. "I was trained as a ninja; I'm good at hiding and still be able to see what I need. Ah, thank you, Young Master. Much better show of good will."

Beach Head whipped around; Storm Shadow was holding Mindbender, obviously considering giving Firefly the prisoner exchange they could all guess he wanted. Snake Eyes was, unsurprisingly, standing right by his sword brother.

"That's not your decision to make, Storm Shadow," the Sergeant Major growled.

"So court martial me," Storm Shadow replied. "I cannot abandon our student." Snake Eyes nodded, raised his hand and pointed to himself, signifying he was with his brother on this.

Beach Head forced himself to think through his rising anger; his options boiled down to two: exchange of prisoner or a fight with the ninjas and in the best case scenario, still one dead Joe in Kamakura. Since they were on a rescue mission in the first place, getting the ninjas back home safely was the priority and the only real argument in favour of refusing to deliver Mindbender was the general philosophy of not negotiating with terrorists. Right now, that argument wasn't very compelling, especially since Beach Head had been about to agree to the prisoner exchange even before Storm Shadow had moved. Letting the spooks get away with imposing their own decision was out of the question, but dealing with that would just have to wait until they were all back at the Pit. He turned his gaze towards the Cobra mercenary again.

"Fine," he growled. "You can have your boyfriend back. Now get those things off the baby spook."

"Oh, but I'm not trading for Mindbender alone," Firefly said with a smirk. "I wouldn't even care about him, except he won't be able to buy Storm Shadow's new blood sample from me if he's your prisoner, now will he?"

Tommy's eyes widened before narrowing into slits as his upper lip curled up into a snarl and his fists clenched. Mindbender howled as the ninja's hold on him, which had already been uncomfortable, suddenly tightened.

Firefly chuckled; if looks could kill, the Arashikage ninja's glare would have surely been the end of him. As it was, his foe's heinous expression was just amusing. He made a show of inspecting his nails and adopted a bored tone to issue his next instructions. "On one of the red fury's shurikens will do."

Storm Shadow shoved Mindbender at Snake Eyes and, still staring angrily at Firefly, extended his arm towards Scarlett.

The red head, who like most everyone else around felt that whether or not Mindbender acquired Tommy's blood for his mixed cloning attempt was of no importance whatsoever, obligingly deposited one of her throwing stars in her team mate's hand.

Never taking his eyes off the Cobra mercenary, strictly because as ineffectual as it was, glaring at him was the worst he could do to the man right now, Tommy used the star-shaped blade to make a shallow cut on his thigh, cutting right through the civilian cargo pants he was still wearing, and then held up the shuriken to show Firefly the blood staining it.

"Goood ninja," Firefly cooed. "Now give it to Mindbender and send him this way," he continued in a tone that was once more all business. "We're both going to disappear, but I'm keeping the detonator. It has a very good range, and I'm holding it in my hand… anyone tries to follow us, the kid blows up before you can possibly have half of those explosives off him. Now, I know you're all thinking that if I take the detonator, you have no way to know I won't blow poor little Sean Collins up whether I'm followed or not… it's a shame you have no power to negotiate over this, isn't it?" He cackled and readjusted Kamakura in front of him to remind the Joes that shooting him was also out of the question.

Mindbender finally allowed himself to believe things were actually working out when Snake Eyes released his grip on him. He grinned as he took the shuriken from Storm Shadow, intent on a dignified walk toward Firefly that would have been sure to enrage the Joes, but the ninja's glare killed the pleasing image and replaced it by one involving considerably more cheerful Joes and a lot more bits of himself splattered on the road. He lost his smile and ran off without looking back.

"Tommy, we get it; you're not happy. You can shut up now," Jinx said with a sigh.

The ninjas, along with Scarlett and a handful of injured greenshirts, were on their way back to the Pit in the chopper that had carried Beach Head and his team to their short lived campsite. The Sergent Major had stayed behind with Recondo and the healthy greenshirts to wait for transport for their prisoners, the bodies of the less lucky mercenaries, and themselves.

Storm Shadow had been ranting, raving and cursing non stop ever since they had recovered Kamakura. Jinx was pretty sure some greenshirts had hid injuries just to get to stay behind and away from the pissy ninja.

Said pissy ninja gave his cousin a dirty look. Kimi cast a brief glance at Kamakura, silently communicating to the ninja master that he was well on his way to making the young man miserable with guilt.

Tommy rolled his eyes. "He knows better. I would not expect an apprentice to get the upper hand on Firefly."

Kamakura, who had been paying more attention than strictly necessary, though not because of any misplaced guilt, nodded. "Thank you, Young Master. I am sorry to have been a liability, but I know I had no chance to avoid it once Firefly settled on his plan."

Jinx frowned slightly, puzzled. She could tell Sean was not lying – he was after all terrible at it – but just the same, Snake Eyes' apprentice was definitely bothered by something.

"You mean Jinx and I don't get points for being the only ones of us five NOT to get captured by Firefly on this trip?" Billy asked.

"The only reason you weren't is because we carried you to safety!" Kamakura pointed out.

Billy caught a warning look from his sensei and shrugged. "Yeah…true enough," he conceded with a smirk and a mock salute to his sword brother.

Sean rolled his eyes but quickly brought them back to staring at an invisible point between Jinx and Storm Shadow; he had accidentally caught Thompson's eyes, and the conspiracy theorist was openly looking straight at him, focused enough to be unbothered by the fact the bandage on his head was slipping. Kamakura wasn't confident he could hide his sensei's lie now that he knew about it, or how said knowledge affected his opinion of the greenshirt. He was therefore very keen on avoiding any kind of conversation with the would-be apprentice.

Thompson clenched his jaw, furious. Kamakura was obviously keeping a secret, one that transparently involved him and, given that the red headed ninja apprentice was also avoiding looking at his beloved sensei, Snake Eyes.

The conspiracy theorist hated being kept in the dark; hated it with a passion. He glared at Billy, hoping Storm Shadow's apprentice would act friendly again and try to get on his good side by revealing what was going on, but the young man ignored him completely, listening instead to his sensei, whose diatribe had mutated from a curse filled rant into a curse filled history lesson on Hanzo Hattori and the Arashikage.

Thomson narrowed his eyes in concentration. If nobody was going to tell him, he'd just have to figure it out. Kamakura had obviously found out something about him during this trip, something that related somehow to Snake Eyes. Everyone knew he had asked the silent ninja to teach him, so it couldn't be that. Everyone knew about the werewolf incident, too, so it couldn't be that either. No, it had to be something else. And whatever it was, Kamakura did not want it so much as brought up in front of his sensei.

If it wasn't about something that had already happened, maybe it was about something that hadn't happened yet. The way Thompson figured, that was either that Snake Eyes would finally agree to teach him, or that he never would. As tempting as it was to think Kamakura had learned he'd soon have to share his sensei, it didn't fit with Collins' discomfort level. More likely, the red head had instead found out that Snake Eyes had no intention to ever teach him, no matter what.

The greenshirt bit his lip; it wasn't the conclusion he wanted to come to but truth be told, it matched a suspicion he'd had for a while. It was probably best to get out of denial and figure out his next move.

The end of the battle replayed in his mind. The Sergeant Major had been furious at the insubordination, but really, it hadn't been surprising. Storm Shadow was nothing if not consistent, and his priority was his clan.

Thompson's eyes widened slightly. That also explained the whole deception about the werewolf, come to think of it. Storm Shadow had even explained it, or tried to, anyway. Basically, it had come down to doing whatever was best for Snake Eyes; picking a priority.

The greenshirt internally groaned. He was not seriously considering this, was he? Granted, when he thought about it rationally, Storm Shadow could in fact be trusted. Not to be rational, obviously, but definitely to be good intentioned towards his clan. It was just a matter of knowing what to expect. You didn't demand a restaurant waiter do your taxes, and you didn't demand Storm Shadow be entirely sane. And, granted again, if he persisted in holding a pointless grudge, he'd miss the opportunity of a lifetime. Ninjas were spies and infiltrators, not to mention the fighting abilities… with that skill set, nobody would be able to deny him the truth ever again and eventually, he'd be able to accomplish the same miracles Snake Eyes routinely managed.

He sighed. He could forgive and seize an amazing opportunity, or he could be stupid and resentful. He felt he had never been stupid before in his life, and he saw no good reason to start now.

He got up and went to sit next to Billy, looking straight at Storm Shadow with what he hoped was a defiant, in control expression.

The ninja raised an eyebrow. "Interested in Hattori, are you?" he said. "Well, our secrets about him are now out in the worst possible hands anyway, so there is no reason to keep them from an ally… even one that has yet to accept an open offer to join the clan as an apprentice."

Thompson snorted. "You really think I'd sit here and listen to your ramblings if I wasn't doing exactly that?"

Tommy held back a smile long enough to gauge the clan's other master's reaction. His brother had told him before that he would not object to it if Thompson finally took him up on his offer of apprenticeship, but that had been under the belief that it would never happen.

Snake Eyes shrugged.

Storm Shadow grinned at his new apprentice. "And about time, too. But don't worry, we'll catch you up. Conspiracy theorists don't believe in sleep anyway, right?"

Fin